Hot off the press and into your kitchen comes this great offering from our favourite Canadian Top Chef judge. Bringing it Home is the new cookbook by Gail Simmons, who knows a thing or two about food; a judge since 2006 on television’s top-rated Top Chef, Gail brings us this spirited collection of her “favourite recipes from a lifetime of adventurous eating.”

Good morning indeed! Bloody Mary Eggs.

For years Ms Simmons, born in Toronto and a graduate of Montreal’s McGill University has been rubbing shoulders and sharing culinary secrets with the top chefs in the world, including Christina Tosi, Marcus Samuelsson, Tom Colicchio (who wrote the forward), Daniel Boulud et al. And I do mean all. And in this lively collection she shares with us recipes, secrets and tips from years of cooking with the masters, as well as insights into the profession that started in her mother’s kitchen and has since landed her as the special projects director at Food and Wine and has made her a household-or at least kitchenhold- name across Canada and the U.S.

Lazy Lobster Pie with Panko and Parmesan crust

Brimming with kitchen wisdom including technical tips, little historical snippets and lore about certain ingredients and origins of foodstuffs, this book brings us upwards of one hundred recipes- from salads, soups and stews to noodles and rice, fish and seafood, poultry and meat and much more, finishing, as most great meals do, with a luscious assortment of desserts, all falling under the “if you can read this you can cook this” mantra, the essential ingredient that makes all the recipes both enticing and approachable.

Za’atar chicken schnitzel with Israeli salad

Reading this book for home cooks is like aspiring actors getting a chance to hang out with Meryl Streep. This is a great read and more importantly, a cookbook you will want to hang out with year-round. We’re glad Gail brought it home.

Inspired by her South African Dad, Gail created this Black Licorice Chocolate Bundt Cake